Planted this last year and it feels so good to see it come back this year.

  • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.orgM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Oh wow, is that Monarda punctata? It’s beautiful! We have M. fistulosa and M. didyma and they’re wonderful as pollinator attractors, but we use the flowers in teas and the leaves as a replacement for oregano.

    • mooseknee@beehaw.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      It is!! Good eye! I’ve heard you can make tea with it, but was too nervous to try lol. We planted it along with some other native pollinators to help the ecosystem. (Even if it’s insignificant)

      • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.orgM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Different resources advocate for just leaves, or just flowers, or some combination of the two. Personally, the flavor is a little too oregano for my tastes BUT if you harvest the flower tubules it’s slightly sweeter. If you were to take those, put them in a loosely closed mason jar for 24 hours, and then dry them after that short fermentation period you can mix them with dried raspberry leaves for a faux earl grey blend (if that’s your jam).

        Even if it’s insignificant

        Keep up the great work! Even one plant can support dozens of species and thousands of individuals interacting around it, and ‘no single raindrop believes it caused the flood’.

      • lol3droflxp@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        No effort is insignificant. You never know if a local population of something is depending on the last few host plants in your area and you are increasing their chances by a lot if that is the case.

      • nikt@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Stupid squirrels ate all the flower buds off my M. punctata. 🤦‍♂️

        I was waiting all summer for it to bloom.

        • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.orgM
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          You might be able to prompt additional flowers with pruning… On M. fistulosa, didyma, and bradburiana you’d look for a double set of leaves at an internode for pruning to promote a second flowering period. I’m not versed in pruning punctata, but the images I’ve seen seem to suggest a similar leaf structure. It might be worth cutting back to another node to see if it works.

          In the squirrels’ defense, Monarda has long been regarded as medicine by many of the indigenous communities in its native range, and it’s very kind of you to be providing curative foods to them. It might be small consolation but their browse would spur additional vegetative growth that will allow the plant to be even larger than it would have otherwise been, so you’ll have more of it next year.

          • nikt@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah I’m basically running a squirrel grocery / pharmacy nowadays. Also serving the needs of the local slug population.

        • mooseknee@beehaw.orgOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Oh no! I had no idea they like these. We’ve got squirrels everywhere, but thankfully they’ve left our stuff alone.

          • nikt@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m starting to think the squirrels around here are a bit deranged. They also ate all of the echinacea flowers, and every single hot pepper I grew this year.